


Fuelling the fire.

by One_Real_Imonkey



Series: Twisted Memories AU [14]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angry Anakin Skywalker, Emotional Manipulation, Gaslighting, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Manipulation, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Single Parent Obi-Wan Kenobi, Worried Anakin Skywalker, forgiving Obi-Wan Kenobi, no actual abuse, not between Jangobi anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29501322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_Real_Imonkey/pseuds/One_Real_Imonkey
Summary: Anakin is furious that Obi-Wan just accepts Jango back, as though nothing had happened, as though he hadn't been gone for 10 whole years.After an argument with Obi-Wan, he goes to the only person he thinks will understand.
Relationships: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Twisted Memories AU [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2146377
Comments: 14
Kudos: 178





	Fuelling the fire.

**Author's Note:**

> The series will be reordered in a list, and updates will be all over the chronology. Anyway, here's another update.  
> I don't own Star Wars.  
> Base Warning: Sheev is really manipulative in this.  
> Please enjoy.

Why, Obi-Wan mused, did tea with his former Padawan so often end in argument nowadays.

“Obi-Wan, he left us. Why do you let him pretend he still cares?”

“Oh Ani, dear one, you know he didn’t leave on purpose. He...”

“He was gone for 10 years. Why are you acting like nothing happened?”

“Something did happen, Ani, I know it did. I'm not pretending it didn’t, I'm not pretending this isn’t a huge change. And I know things are different, and that you missed him, that Jango was gone and missed so much, but...”

“Missed so much? He missed everything; he broke all his promises! He promised he’d be there when I was knighted, he promised you’d never be alone, he promised he’d be there for us. He left us. He left you.”

“Ani...”

“No! No, you... you used to cry when you thought I was asleep, you used to stay up staring into the sky like it would bring him back to you, every time you came back from Little  Keldabe without news you looked a little worse, you had to manage all the Mandalorian stuff, his responsibilities not yours, alone, you had to raise me alone, you had to take in Ahsoka alone, he wasn’t there to celebrate you becoming a Master, or getting a seat on the Council. You had to do all of it alone, while grieving him. Your vow, the Riduurok, it was supposed to be unbreakable, but he did break it. We will share everything, but you didn’t, you had to do all the work, take all the responsibilities. Together we will raise warriors, no, you raised us, alone. You did everything.”

“Anakin, I know, but it wasn’t his fault.”

“No, no, it was. You're too forgiving, you should be angry. You weren’t ever angry, you went straight to forgiveness, you’d forgiven him before he even came back, it’s not right. He left us. He left you! He left you alone.”

“Anakin. Anakin!”

“I wish he’d stayed dead, stayed gone. We were so much better off before he came back!”

Obi-Wan made to follow his eldest out the door, but paused, watching him storm away.

Talking to Anakin wasn’t going anywhere. Obi-Wan wished he’d forgive Jango, couldn’t understand why Ani wouldn’t let go of the anger. Why he couldn’t move past this?

Jango had been home for months now, Ahsoka had warmed up to him instantly, the Vode were glad to be Ahsoka’s  aliit and his. But Anakin didn’t want to spend time with Jango, or the Vode, really.

He'd work with them, military excursions working as a battalion, but as brothers...

It broke Obi-Wan's heart to know their family had shattered like this.

Ani had loved Jango once, and Jango still loved Anakin still.

Ani had loved Jango once... Obi-Wan prayed he’d forgive Jango eventually.

He wasn’t the small child who’d jumped on Jango’s back laughing.

He wasn’t the young teen who waited every day for Jango to return.

He wasn’t the elder teen who’d given up on his Buir coming home, and decided it was easier to  believe he was dead.

He was a young man now, a young Knight, with a wife and a very big hole in his heart.

Obi-Wan's heart had healed at simply seeing his  riduur again, at the recognition in his eyes as he realised who Obi-Wan was, at what he’d done. Healing every second they spent together.

Anakin's would just take longer, and a little more care...

That was all.

.

.

.

Palpatine wasn’t shocked that Anakin had asked to talk.

The boy had been through such a turbulent time, after all, it would make sense that he’d want someone to talk to that wasn’t Obi-Wan, who’d clearly forgiven Fett and ‘wouldn’t understand where Anakin was coming from.’ He didn’t much care about the  boy's issues, beyond how they would bolster his plans and get Anakin seeing his way of thinking, getting the boy under his thumb so he could have the Galaxy’s most powerful weapon at his side.

He needed an apprentice, a strong one, and if listening to complaints and pretending to care was the way to get that, then it was what he would do. His plan would not fail for impatience or bad acting.

“Obi-Wan’s just acting like nothing happened, like Fett didn’t forget about us for 10 whole years.”

“Oh, I understand, my dear boy, memory loss or not, I know how stressful it’s been for you, and I do wish more people would consider that, but I just have to wonder how one even removes someone's memories. I've forgotten things before, but never anything important to me. I would have thought that important memories would have stayed, not that I know much about Mental arts or the Force of course. I can’t imagine how painful it must be for you.”

“I just, I remember... I don’t know, I remember him being there, and at the time it felt like he cared, but...but now all I have are these doubts.”

“Doubts, my dear boy, about what?”

“I don’t know, whether he loved me at all, any of us, I guess. He used to say he loved me, but I mean, I... If I'd been in his place, I'd have never forgotten my family. If he’d really loved me, surely, he’d never have forgotten me. I'd never forget Obi-Wan, or Ahsoka, and if I'd had a child, if  Padmé and I ever have a child, I'd never forget them, and I'd never ever forget Padmé. I'd have held onto those memories, fought, I wouldn’t have given in and let someone take them from me.”

“ Of course you wouldn’t dear boy. You are strong, and you care deeply, you love your family, I don’t think for a second you’d forget the people you loved. But... no, I'm sure it’s nothing.” 

“No, Chancellor, please, if you have any advice, or thoughts on this, please...”

“Well, he is a Mandalorian, and they are, well, passionate, violent, dangerous, possessive... are you sure Obi-Wan has actually forgiven him, that he isn’t just worried about upsetting him, scared of him or what he’d do, trying to protect you and Ahsoka from him by placating him, in any way he can?”

“I... no. I'm not. I mean, well, he’s not even angry at all, and that's not normal, even for a Jedi. And I know he says he forgave him,  but, I suppose he’s always been good with words, and hiding his pain from me, from everyone, but... but, well, I... I don’t think it’s that. I don’t think it’s that he’s scared of Jango, he doesn’t suffer fools or threats. He wouldn’t have let us near him, surely, if that was the case, would he? He's smart, he wouldn’t get backed into a corner, would he? No, no surely not.”

“If you don’t think so, then I’m sure you know him better.  So what do you think it is then?”

“Well, Obi-Wan, he... he takes his oaths seriously. All of them. The  Riduurok is for life, so he has to follow it, whether he still loves Jango or not. He wants to raise the Clones, which I understand because he’s like that, but Jango... why does Obi-Wan have to be so loyal to people who aren’t loyal back?”

“Because he’s that sort of person, but be careful Anakin, loyal people like Obi-Wan are easy to manipulate, it could put him in danger if he’s not careful, especially when he has people he cares about who could be harmed and especially if he genuinely believes himself that he loves Fett or that Fett loves him. Whether to protect you, or to honour his old oath, or because he genuinely thinks it’s real, don’t forget that he cares about you, he would do a great many things for you, and some of them don’t bare thinking about. He’ll need someone like you to keep an eye on him, Anakin.”

“Don’t worry, Chancellor, I won’t let anyone hurt Obi-Wan, not even someone like Fett. I...  I'm sorry, I have to leave soon.”

“Of course, Anakin, stay safe, my boy.”

Palpatine sighed as the door clicked shut. 

He had hoped Fett would be his weapon to kill Kenobi, his way to get the annoying Jedi out of his way in getting Anakin onto his side, while also breaking him, because his  long-lost parent killing the other...

It would have been perfect.

Still, Anakin had enough fire in him against Fett to be useful, and Kenobi’s willingness to be manipulated by the people he claimed he loved, and who claimed to love him was always useful. As long as he could sow even the smallest doubts into Anakin’s mind that Fett might be emotionally, physically or sexually abusing Kenobi, he had the advantage, and Anakin would always hold that shred of doubt about trusting the man. It would work, he knew, because he remembered what Anakin had told him of the things his mother had suffered, and the way Kenobi had hidden his sadness and emotion from Anakin when Anakin was small, after Fett had ‘left’.

The biggest threat Kenobi presented was that he gave his love freely, and inspired genuine loyalty and alliance with  most of the people he met. Hells, he’d managed to get the Jedi Killer to fall in love with him. It was pathetic, how this was the man who’d killed Maul, he’d never know.

Perhaps Maul hadn’t been the student he’d thought, but Dooku was an improvement, though a risky one. It had been a risk, turning someone who was still working from within the Order, not to mention someone so close to Kenobi, but Dooku had managed to get him his Clones, and in taking Fett away in a move that would ‘protect his lineage from that killer’, he’d destabilised Anakin. It had been the first piece of the plan, and the unstable child looking for reassurance had been the perfect target. It was an exhausting effort to get him to doubt what Sheev was pretty sure was real paternal love out of Fett, damned parental Mandalorians, but over the 10 years it had worked. Again, Fett killing Kenobi would have been the final nail in the coffin, but not everything could go entirely to plan as hoped. That was why you had contingencies and back-up plans, after all.

Still, when the time came, everything would fall into place.

Exactly as  planned .

Well, maybe not exactly as planned, but just because Fett had freed his Clones, given them names and pretended they were people... but he didn’t know about the chips.

No-one knew about the chips.

Part of him actually hoped Kenobi would live until he issued Order 66.

So he could watch his people die.

So he could watch his ‘sons’ be the ones to kill them.

So his last sight would be his own precious children turning their weapons on him.

Oh yes, he liked that idea very much.

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a:  
> Riduurok- Mandalorian marriage vow, absolutely sacred to them.  
> Vode- siblings, brothers-in-arms, clones   
> aliit- family/clan  
> Buir- parent  
> riduur- spouse
> 
> So yeah, Ani is going to be a little messed up by Palps, I've mentioned it before, in comments and it's going to be come clear as this goes on. Palps is using this to his advantage 100%. Palpatine strongly implies Jango might be abusing Obi-Wan in one way or another, but to be very clear, that does not happen. He's just playing on Anakin's fears. It might not really get mentioned again in the series, but it happens a lot behind the scenes.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.  
> My Tumblr is One_Real_Imonkey.  
> Please R+R.


End file.
